Bishop Ajayi Crowther did not produce the first Igbo Bible as has over the years, been erroneously portrayed or taught.
T.J Dennis whom was said to have translated the Union Igbo Bible didn't do it . It's the same story of Mungo Park discovering River Niger.
Àjàyí Crowther was a bishop, under his watch the Ibo primer known as Azụ Ndụ was produced. The man behind that project was Jonas, an Ọnịcha man, and one of the earliest converts and one of the returned slaves, just as Ajayi Crowther who returned from Freetown.
The CMS started in Nigeria from Ọnịcha, whence the like of Crowther became a Bishop. There was no Bible in Igbo during the time of Crowther but Primer.
However, he developed the Yoruba language and produced literature in Yoruba. In Igbo, he worked with the Igbo who did the job. The Igbo used during the time of Crowther was called Isoama/Isoma Igbo. It was seen as imported language by ex-slaves. Bible was not produced in Igbo under the leadership of Crowther but Isoama-Ibo Primer which has collection of riddles, proverbs and sayings in native language. In 1927, it was revised and accommodated essays on Christian religious topics and eighteen folklores. It was then called "Akwụkwọ Ọgụgụ Ibo" and our people named it Azụ Ndụ because the back is green. The name which has been ambiguously referred to both "live fish" and "back of life."
Because of the demerit of Isoama Ibo, then comes the Union Igbo period, championed under the authority of an Anglican priest, Thomas J Dennis.
You know of DMGS today in Ọnịcha?— Dennis Memorial Grammar School. It was named after the Anglican priest— Thomas Dennis who was born in 1869 and died in 1917.
He was said to have translated the Bible into the Igbo language. If you check on the Internet now, that's what you'd see. Unfortunately, this has been the lie told to us for years and we held it as truth and history, then reference it.
It was under him that our two Igbo brothers— Bishop Alphonsus Onyeabọ and Anyaegbunam translated Bible into the Igbo Language and called it Union Bible.
In their usual way of taking glory on our narratives, the missionary documented that T.J Dennis, a Whiteman translated Bible Nsọ Union into Igbo, and this has been taught in school as history, with no acknowledgement of Onyeabọ and Anyaegbunam who did the job.
Yes, T.J. Dennis played major role to support the translation and in extension, expand the Igbo Language because under his auspices the work was done, but he didn't do it. Two igbo Anglican men did it. There's a religious narrative told how only the Bible translated by him was saved when boat capsized and he died, only the Bible survived on the water and would later be published. That's one of those stories.
In the nearest future, I will be dropping a lot of historical insights about our past. Real facts with references.
These information are verifiable.
I paused!
Copyright: Maazi Ogbonnaya Okoro II
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